Oddly, Cera is reminded of the caverns in the Heart as the crystalline woman whirls to face him again, the world clouded by red and pain and confusion. Hiding in the dark, fearful of the world above, the creatures looming beyond their front door. How they had cowered, without sunlight, without borders. United as one in their fight for life, trying to keep faith that the Gods would not abandon them to their earthen grave. The world is askew with only one working eye, and his head sways unnaturally back and forth, confusion whimpering on his tongue as he tries to shake the ringing in his ears from the impact of her teeth on his face. He's coated in blood - face wounds bleed heavily, child, staunch them quickly - he can hear Midas crooning softly, but it does nothing to ease the pain. In fact it only makes his heart cry louder in supplication, begging for deliverance from the pain of losing everyone he'd ever loved. 

Her cry of his name precedes her rush to him and he does not attack her, this blow the last he can weather as his rage shatters and dissipates into hurt and defensiveness. He cringes from her, just as unsure of her motives as she is of his. But as her words blubber forth, and she comes to the same realization as he, Cera can't help but start to laugh softly. It peters out and then begins to build upon itself once again, louder and louder, until it's hysterical. Until the laughter becomes tears, blood running against his face as it mixes with his tears. Salt in the wound. Hurting himself with his own emotions. How poetic, considering what had just transpired between the two of them. 

"There's nothing," he murmured helplessly, still hiccuping laughter through his tears. "There's nobody, Sohalia. Nobody can fix this." His eye. His heart. His family. Nobody existed that could fix any of it, right now. 

He turned his watery green eyes to her, simply tired now. Aching. Hurting. She was both the weights tied to his ankle and the life preserver, and he wasn't sure whether to let the water consume him and drag him down or try and reach out for her one more time. Simply stood staring trying to figure out where to go next, after this. After everyone and everything. 

"You were the closest thing I ever had to a mother," he whispered dully, almost stoically if it weren't for the exhaustion exhaling on his breaths as he speaks. "You never even told me why you left. Never apologized. What was I supposed to do with that? What do you want from me anymore, Sohalia?" A hiccup of a sob tried to crawl from his throat and he crushed it hatefully in his windpipe. He was no boy anymore. It was time to stop acting like one. 

"To bear this weight forever? To watch everyone leave me over and over again without being hurt by it? Do you expect me to be godlike, to never snap? To never hate? WHY DOES EVERYONE EXPECT ME TO BE FORGIVING AFTER ALL THIS TIME?!" The words screamed out from his torn throat, and he turned and flung his head away from her, blood spraying all out across the sand, as if it needed to be tainted by any more blood now. "WHY DOES EVERYONE ELSE GET TO MAKE MISTAKES?! Why do you all need me to be the good one, the happy one? WHO MADE THAT MY JOB?!" And the bellowing of his anger and his hurt echoed across the sands louder than he'd ever managed before. Until even the echoes were silent and he was just left with the shattered picture frames his angry fists had torn apart, hating himself for touching the last remains of something good and pure he still had in his grasp. 

And his shoulders shook, too much of a man now to let himself cry, but too childlike in his heart to bear the burden on his small shoulders any longer.

DONT MIND ME I'LL BE OVER HERE CRYING